This week in Fall of the House of X, Enigma emerges as an even worse threat than previous thought, and Wonder Man returns as Beast’s bestie!

PRELUDE TO THE FALL OF X

X-Force #49 and Rise of the Powers of X #2.

RECAP OF THE FALL OF X

Before the fall of the Greenhouse, Beast Prime is on the run and armed with Krakoan resources. Wolverine and Sage try to figure out what should be done about it, but they’re interrupted by Black Tom, who informs him the Beast clone they awakened has escaped. Through her tech, Sage figures out Beast Prime is planning something dangerous —but not exactly what— and also she mistakenly believes his clone is in on the plan. The plan, it turns out, is such: he wants to destroy Arakko, believing it to have been a mistake in the Krakoan experiment, and then to retaliate against humanity for what they’ve done. Elsewhere, Clone Beast breaks into the home of his (strained) best friend, Wonder Man, and pleads for his help in stopping Beast Prime.

Some time later at No-Place X, Xavier reaffirms his belief that it’s time for their second plan now that the first (stopping Enigma, Mister Sinister’s evil A.I) is no longer possible: kill Moira X before her powers manifest. Mother Righteous argues this plan won’t work, but the rest of the mutants remain firm. The multi-step plan requires gathering enough information on Moira through her multiple pocket timelines captured by Sinister and figuring out the path to her Prime self (see: Dead X-Men), but they will only have one chance at it because of Enigma’s harsh security measures. Aksani doesn’t know the extent of Xavier’s plan (killing Moira) because he fears she won’t go along with it otherwise and reassures Rasputin IV that their must carry out their goal.

No-Place X is then found by Engima, having finally found them after much searching, which forces the team to fight it off while they look for another hiding spot. They manage to restabilize themselves, but at the cost of Xavier agreeing to half a conversation with Enigma. Elsewhere, Enigma reaches out to Moira X, telling her that he wants to have a chat with her as well.

ANALYSIS OF THE FALL OF X

X-Force, much like Wolverine has been, is less consequential than what’s happening in the core title this week, but it definitely seems like they’re using that story arc to prepare a reset button for Beast, who has become quite a different character through the Krakoa era. It’s nice to see him close with Wonder Man again; they’re besties! Also fun to see Wonder Man in an X-Men comic.

As for RotPoX, a lot of it is reiterating the story up to this point —needed because of how dense it all is— but it does make some interesting moves forward. This version of Xavier is desperate and not at his best, which isn’t a side we usually see of him. He knows their back is against the wall and it’s almost mostly his fault, which brings some much-needed stakes to the event. (But him not telling Rachel the extent of the plan? Classic Xavier!) I’m very interested to see how his conversation with Enigma —and Moira?— goes.

NEXT IN THE FALL OF X

Next week is gonna be a chunky one with (checks notes…) Wolverine #44, Dead X-Men #2, Invincible Iron Man #42, Cable #2 and Resurrection of Magneto #4. Whew!